The Night Sky: An Endangered Species

by Justin Soutar

“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.”
–Psalm 19:2

“Lead me on kindly Light of Truth, amid the encircling gloom…”
--Saint John Henry Newman, 1833

“Today we can illuminate our cities so brightly that the stars of the sky are no longer visible. Is this not an image of the problems caused by our version of enlightenment? With regard to material things, our knowledge and our technical accomplishments are legion, but what reaches beyond, the things of God and the question of good, we can no longer identify.”
--Benedict XVI, April 8, 2012

The famous nineteenth-century poem, “The Pillar of the Cloud,” better known by its hymn title, “Lead, Kindly Light,” was authored by a brilliant and influential young Anglican priest-scholar during a twofold physical and spiritual journey. Father John Henry Newman, who was sailing northwestward across the Mediterranean Sea from Italy to France in June of 1833, had also embarked on an earnest quest for the fullness of Christian truth. When his orange boat was becalmed for a week in the Strait of Bonifacio, he penned these simple, evocative lines, humbly beseeching the gentle light of divine truth to guide him one step at a time through the darkness of doubt, uncertainty, and error. God heard and answered Newman’s prayer, leading him gradually to the fullness of divinely revealed truth in the Catholic Church.

Christianity and Catholicism teach that God created “the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1) out of nothing, ex nihilo, and entrusted to humanity, his masterpiece, the responsibility to develop and care for his creation. The importance of protecting nature was frequently stressed by Pope Benedict XVI, who installed solar panels on the roof of the Paul VI Hall in 2008, and it has been a dominant theme of Pope Francis’ pontificate, discussed in detail in his groundbreaking 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’ (Praise Be to You). For sincere Christians and Catholics, faith in the Creator of nature and good stewardship of the natural environment go hand in hand, and care for creation is both an individual and a communal responsibility.

In his important 2009 encyclical Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth), Benedict XVI, echoing his predecessors, heartily affirmed the basic goodness of the scientific progress and technological advancements that have marked the Industrial and Digital Ages. At the same time, in continuity with recent papal thinking, Benedict soberly observed that scientific and technological development detached from fundamental religious and moral values inevitably has destructive consequences for humanity and the natural environment. In Laudato Si’, Pope Francis rightly criticizes the many forms of environmental degradation and pollution with which unscrupulous human beings have flooded the earth since the dawn of the Industrial Age, driven by a lust for profit that trumped concern for our common home.

One form of environmental contamination not mentioned in either encyclical (or, to this author’s knowledge, in any official Church document, for that matter) and generally overlooked today is light pollution. Since the invention of the long-lasting incandescent light bulb by American inventor Thomas Edison in 1878, electric lighting has become a ubiquitous and essential hallmark of modern civilization throughout the developed world and has become increasingly widespread in developing countries. During the past century and a half, the marvels of incandescent, fluorescent, and LED lighting have replaced candles, kerosene lamps, and gaslights as our primary light sources, making all aspects of human life and activity much easier and safer, especially during the nighttime hours.

Unfortunately, in recent decades, especially in North America, Europe, and Asia, the steady growth of artificial illumination at night has gradually deprived the great majority of Earth’s population of a sight our ancient forebears took for granted: the starry sky on a clear, moonless night. Our naked-eye view of the majestic heavens, unprecedentedly enhanced by sophisticated telescopes and cameras, is now increasingly threatened by our excessive and irresponsible use of electric lighting, particularly in urban and suburban areas.

Satellite cameras continuously monitoring our planet since the 1960s have candidly documented the rising number and intensity of artificial light sources across populated areas of the continents at night. Conversely, these satellites have revealed that locations across the globe that enjoy truly dark nighttime skies have been constantly shrinking and vanishing. Worse yet, more recent satellite photographs indicate that this phenomenon of ever-increasing light pollution has accelerated dramatically since 2010--even as human population growth in developed countries has been slackening during this time because of the culture of death—-due to the rapid spread and largely unregulated use of outdoor LED illumination.

In his infinite goodness and perfect wisdom, our loving Creator designed Earth’s atmosphere to be transparent to visible light, allowing us to explore from our home planet the vast and beautiful cosmos that he fashioned to surround it. In a truly dark rural location on a clear summer or winter night when the Moon is absent or less than half illuminated, the gentle glow of a star-spangled sky bisected by the delicate white ribbon of the Milky Way Galaxy is a marvelous sight to behold. The light from most of the 3,000 individual stars sprinkled across the firmament has taken anywhere from dozens to hundreds of years to reach our eyes because of their great distances from us; yet these are only our nearest neighbors in space. The Milky Way itself is visible to the unaided eye thanks to the combined light of many billions of stars so much further distant that they appear to form solid masses despite most of them being light-years apart from each other. Binoculars, telescopes, and megapixel CCD cameras allow us to penetrate much deeper into the universe and further back in time to see many more stars, as well as nebulae and other galaxies, as they appeared long ago.

The great medieval philosopher and theologian Saint Thomas Aquinas wrote that human beings come to know about God through their senses. By seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, and tasting the amazing variety of good things God has created, we can learn something about the nature of their Creator. The intricate design, sheer diversity, and mutual interdependence of plant and animal life on Earth’s surface and in the rivers and oceans reveals to us God’s intelligence, wisdom and providence. While Scripture tells us that all aspects of creation manifest the glory of God, it says so most specifically of the heavens. And while a person can conceivably come to know God by seeing only what he has created on this Earth as well as the Sun and Moon, for so many of our contemporaries to go through their entire lives without ever witnessing the gentle light of the Creator’s celestial handiwork in a dark sky with their own eyes is a terrible impoverishment!

In far too many places in our country and the world today, more electric lighting is used than is necessary for the purposes it serves, and it is installed and utilized without any consideration for the cumulative side effects of artificial light emissions on humanity and the natural environment. This is especially true of the harsh and unfriendly LED lighting that has gradually invaded every nook and cranny of our nighttime lives from streetlights and car headlights to flashlights and solar lights within the past ten years, rightly hailed for its cheapness and energy efficiency. Apart from its aesthetic offensiveness to which we have been dulled by constant exposure and increasing evidence of its negative effects on human health, the major problem with this currently dominant form of artificial illumination is that most of it radiates strongly in the blue portion of the visible light spectrum. As professional and amateur astronomers are painfully aware, blue light scatters very easily throughout the atmosphere, rendering it the primary cause of the global light pollution disaster we now face. With the inexorable spread of “white” (i.e., blue-emitting) LED brilliance into rural areas, even the last remaining bastions of dark sky country are now at risk of being lost.

Regrettably, there is so little knowledge and awareness, let alone discussion and debate, among the general public on the issue of light pollution that it is not even on the radar screen of most local, state, and national policymakers. Until citizens are sufficiently informed and motivated to insist on legal protections for the vanishing treasure of the starry heavens, there will be no reason for our elected representatives at any level of government to enact direly needed artificial lighting emission regulations or to provide incentives for the general manufacture and installation of environmentally friendly lighting.

The principle of subsidiarity, a core tenet of Catholic social teaching, indicates that wherever possible, change for the better should begin at the grassroots level, one person at a time. Regardless of whether we live in an urban, suburban, or rural location, our individual choices and examples can contribute to either exacerbating or eradicating the modern plague of light pollution.

I live in the mountains of western Virginia where nighttime skies are still some of the darkest in the eastern half of the continental United States. Even here, however, within the past several years there has been a perceptible increase in artificial skyglow on the southern horizon caused mainly by gradual LED infiltration in the nearby small town. As a longtime amateur astronomer who has been concerned about this issue for many years, I decided to take a few simple measures to make my own home more dark-sky friendly.

The biggest offender on my premises was a heart-shaped rosary light on the east-facing wall of the house almost entirely made up of bright blue LEDs (the worst kind), which threw a lot of stray light into the eastern front yard and the sky above even with a substantial porch roof overhang. Rather than turn it off altogether, I tried applying an inch or two of masking tape to each of the 53 blue light bulbs. This dramatically cut the blue light emission into the yard while allowing the harmless red and nearly harmless orange bulbs to show up better, and the whole rosary light pattern is still clearly visible from half a mile away. This is a win-win situation as I can witness my Catholic faith and protect creation at the same time.

Another significant source of light pollution was the set of inexpensive solar-powered lights in my yard. A few years ago, I had purchased and installed twenty of these to illuminate the walkway leading from my driveway to the kitchen door. While observing the night sky one evening, I glanced over and was alarmed at the brilliant glow of bluish-white light they were collectively emitting in the western front yard. I quickly reduced their number to ten and subsequently lowered it to just six, which provided adequate illumination with much less light pollution.

Additionally, I have good old-fashioned 60-watt incandescent light bulbs in the two porch lights on the north and west sides of the house. Unlike fluorescents and LEDs, this traditional bulb type radiates mainly in the red portion of the visible light spectrum. Red light does not scatter, so it does not contribute to light pollution. However, incandescent bulbs do also emit quite a bit of yellow light, which scatters somewhat, so I decided not to use any 75 or 100-watt bulbs outside.

Finally, the emergency propane-run electric generator on the west side of the house has a little bright green light on the side to indicate that the unit is functioning properly. Green light is terrible for the night sky because it scatters nearly as much as blue light does, so I cut out a square piece of plastic from a one-gallon water bottle and attached it to the generator with masking tape. The green light is still easily seen at night but without unnecessary radiation into the yard.

The global epidemic of artificial light pollution is getting worse all the time, with fewer and fewer people able to see the star-spangled, Milky Way-strewn night sky as the Creator intended it to be seen, and very little is being done to address this problem. The good news is that, unlike some other forms of environmental contamination, light pollution is entirely reversible. The night sky may be a critically endangered species, but with a bit of common-sense research, planning, ingenuity, and legislation, it can and should be well preserved for current and future generations of humanity. This author makes the following recommendations for the United States:

1) All incorporated cities, metropolitan areas, towns, and counties throughout the nation should enact lighting ordinances to reduce and eliminate sources of excessive and poorly designed outdoor artificial illumination that contribute to light pollution at night. These emission regulations should be tailored to the specific needs of each community; for example, a densely populated urban area with severe light pollution will require far more stringent and detailed laws than a sparsely inhabited rural location that enjoys dark skies. These ordinances should restrict both the types and amount of outdoor artificial lighting installed and employed along public thoroughfares and in commercial, industrial, residential, and rural areas during nighttime hours. They should set target dates for full implementation that allow their communities sufficient time to make the necessary changes in outdoor lighting infrastructure. Finally, they should carry fines for noncompliance.

2) These outdoor lighting emission regulations should be most strict during—or could even only apply to—the fully dark hours of the night between evening and morning astronomical twilight, when the Sun’s light is completely absent from the sky and the faintest and most distant stars and galaxies are visible to the naked eye and through binoculars and telescopes. While astronomical darkness typically begins about two hours after sunset and ends about two hours before sunrise, this varies considerably with latitude and time of year, so lawmakers in each locality will need to consult accurate sunrise/sunset and astronomical darkness timetables to determine what portion of night the ordinance should be in effect during each part of the year. (Due to perpetual twilight, locations north of 50° north latitude, including Alaska, do not experience any astronomical darkness from mid-May through late July.)

3) By state law, the number of flashing blue lights on state police cars at night should be limited to four of 200 lumens each, with no more than two illuminated at any given moment.

4) By federal law, all LED, fluorescent, and other light bulbs and fixtures designed for outdoor use, whether manufactured here or imported from abroad, should be subject to spectral analysis before they reach the market to determine the colors of light they emit. Any bulb or fixture producing more than 500 lumens that radiates primarily in the green, blue and/or violet portions of the visible light spectrum should be banned or limited to indoor use only. This policy would eliminate most factory installed and aftermarket LED headlights in automobiles, semi-trucks, motorcycles, and ATVs, which are now major contributors to light pollution nationwide; it would also proscribe green and blue LED price signs at gas stations and holiday light strings consisting entirely of green, blue, violet, or white LEDs. Finally, this rule would require that green LED traffic and railroad signals either be dimmed slightly at night or replaced with another type of green bulb to reduce glare.

5) Congress and the president should reverse the legislative ban in effect since 2012 on the domestic manufacture of incandescent light bulbs. They should also enact legislation that includes tax incentives to encourage the domestic research and development of artificial outdoor lighting that is both dark-sky friendly and energy efficient.

6) Also by federal law, permanent zones of specially restricted outdoor lighting should include and surround each of our national parks, extending at least ten miles from their borders to protect the darkness of their skies.

The idea is to form an interlocking matrix of local, state, and federal outdoor lighting emission regulations that would effectively halt and reverse the raging pandemic of artificial light pollution. Regardless of whether they live in the inner city, the suburbs, a small town, or the countryside, all Americans who can see should have access to sufficiently dark skies that at least a few hundred stars are always visible on a clear night when the Moon is absent or less than half full.

It is no accident that the recent worldwide jump in visible light pollution has occurred at the same time, in the same places, and in the same proportion as the spiritual light of faith in God has been dimmed and extinguished in modern society. Indifference to the Creator and disrespect for his creation go hand in hand. As Benedict XVI wisely points out in the quote at the beginning of this article, the polluted night sky is merely a symptom of our version of enlightenment in which we are so dazzled by our own inventions and accomplishments that we can no longer see beyond them to the great religious and moral truths of our own existence or the origin, destiny, and meaning of the universe itself. The kindly light of divinely revealed truth has a difficult time penetrating the bubble of a radically secularized society and culture determined to navigate by human lights alone.

As believers in the perennial truths that an infinitely good and loving God created the cosmos and that human beings are stewards of creation, Catholics and other Christians should be at the forefront of a mass movement to restore, improve, and protect the visibility of the night sky in the United States and around the world. They should work together with people of goodwill everywhere to ensure that the open book of the Creator’s handiwork in the firmament above can be read by anyone with eyes to see. When that day finally comes, then the “kindly light of Truth” will have a chance to penetrate the darkness of error enshrouding the minds of so many more modern men and women, beckoning them to emerge from their self-constructed cocoons and embark on the fulfilling adventure of faith.

Copyright © 2021 Justin D. Soutar. All rights reserved.

Starmus v. Festival of Creation

This month, a bevy of prominent astronomers, former astronauts, and other noted scientists from around the world joined up with rock musicians to collectively present the Starmus conference-festival in the Canary Islands, which was attended by hundreds of wealthy science and music enthusiasts from the United States and other countries. This interesting two-week event, which has been held in the same location every two or three years since 2011, was co-founded by Armenian astrophysicist Garik Israelian and his British friend, Queen guitarist Brian May, who conceived it as an attractive blend of science and music (the name, Starmus, is short for "stars and music"). During the last few years, this exclusive summertime conference-festival--which was initially considered a bit eccentric--has grown increasingly popular, drawing an ever-larger number of touristy attendees. It features talks by individual astronomers and scientists, roundtable discussions on specific issues related to science, and meet-and-greet sessions with participants during the daytime hours, and ear-splitting rock concerts by May and company in the evening hours. The genius behind the concept of putting scientific presentations and musical entertainment together in a single event, held at a popular tourist destination to boot, is evident from the fact that this festival is resonating with a rapidly growing audience. People want to take a break to travel and enjoy God's creation during the summer; they want to learn something about the latest science and astronomy discoveries from the leaders in those fields; and they want to listen to music. And these wants are not just whims or preferences, but fundamental human needs for relaxation, education, and entertainment. There is a basic hunger for these things, and Starmus is out to fill it. The question is whether this particular scientific gathering and rock festival, which is now an accepted part of twenty-first century Western popular culture, really satisfies these basic human needs.

For me, the major problem with Starmus lies in the ideological and philosophical thrust of the event, which is decidedly Darwinist, materialistic, and atheistic. One of the best-known keynote speakers at multiple events has been Richard Dawkins, the infamous evolutionary biologist, religious bigot, and spokesman for the Darwinist worldview, which is the opposite of the Christian worldview. By contrast, no devoutly Christian astronomers and scientists--not even award-winning and world-famous ones--are ever invited to speak at the conference-festival. There has been very little talk about God or the relationship between science and religion at Starmus thus far, and when such discussions do occur, God is treated mainly as a curiosity, as an aside, and religion is generally viewed as a private, subjective matter subordinate to science, which is hailed as the real and only source of accurate information about the world we live in. Basically, there is no real room for God on the stage at Starmus, where the organizers and VIPs dismiss God the Creator as unnecessary and irrelevant and thus dare to exalt themselves above their Maker. This essentially atheistic guiding philosophy also dictates the type of music offered at the event, which--as then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger once wrote--is "the expression of elemental passions, and at rock festivals it assumes a cultic character, a form of worship, in fact, in opposition to Christian worship" (The Spirit of the Liturgy, Ignatius Press, 2000, p. 148). And then there is the relatively minor issue of the exclusive nature of this event; only those who can afford to travel to the Canary Islands can participate in it.

Yes, unfortunately, Starmus is a highly secularist and elitist event that accurately reflects the  ideological drift of our contemporary Western culture. It denies God, the Creator of the universe and of humanity, the acknowledgement and glory that rightly belong to Him, replacing rational faith in God with irrational faith in blind evolutionary forces that supposedly shape all of reality with no ultimate meaning or purpose whatsoever. Whatever nuggets of good may be found in the Starmus festival, as a whole it is an event profoundly steeped in the darkness of error, a product of human arrogance and foolishness.

A few years ago, as I was reflecting about this, an inspiration came to me: Why not start a different kind of scientific conference and music festival based on the Starmus model, but shaped by Christian faith and traditional values? Such a conference-festival could be called the Festival of Creation, and unlike Starmus, which lasts two weeks and is held every two years on the same remote island, this event would be a few days to a week long and would be held annually each summer right here in the United States, in a different city and state each year, to give people all over this country the opportunity to attend at some point in their lives without having to spend a fortune on travel. Ideally, this event would not be held in a major metropolis, but rather in a medium-sized city surrounded by the natural beauty of God's creation, with the necessary facilities to accommodate up to about 10,000  participants in the first few years. Opening with a prayer, the conference would feature talks and presentations by believing scientists and theologians from across the denominational spectrum, all of whom would be free to speak openly about their faith in God and Jesus Christ. It would also feature informal roundtable discussions that would examine such topics as  science and religion, faith and reason, weather and climate change, environmental issues, good stewardship of creation, the development of sustainable energy resources, and space exploration. The roster of invited speakers would include creationists and Intelligent Design proponents as well as theistic evolutionists (those who believe God used evolutionary processes to develop his creation gradually over time). Some great keynote speakers to invite would include planetary scientist and Carl Sagan Medal winner Brother Guy Consolmagno; renowned DNA geneticist Dr. Francis Collins; well-known creation theologian Cardinal Christoph Schonborn; and noted creationist Ken Ham, founder of the Answers in Genesis theme park in Kentucky. On the basis of their shared faith in the Creator, these speakers would hopefully engage in respectful and charitable dialogue with one another both on and off the stage concerning their different perspectives on how God created everything. This conference would also feature religious testimonies by former atheistic and agnostic scientists who have since come to belief in the Creator (hint hint: former Starmus stars who see the light would be most welcome!). And in the evenings, uplifting and entertaining concerts would feature praise and worship music offered by popular Christian soft rock and pop bands as well as classical music performances with creation-inspired themes by talented artists, all for the glory of God.

While the Festival of Creation would be primarily a Christian event organized by Christians and for Christians, other people of good will who share our faith in God the Creator would also be welcome to attend. Unlike the expensive, exclusive, and worldly shindig in the Canary Islands, this event would be a wholesome, accessible, family-friendly gathering of like-minded believers to celebrate God's creation and enjoy some good fellowship and inspirational music, all while giving the Creator the worship and honor and glory He deserves. And unlike Starmus, which wallows in the darkness of human error, the Festival of Creation would bask in the bright light of revealed truth. Finally, in contrast to Starmus, which discourages and weakens faith in God the Creator, the Festival of Creation would encourage and strengthen such faith while offering an attractive and needed witness to the growing ranks of nonbelievers of the true origin and purpose of their existence. People need a good vacation, they need to relax and enjoy God's creation, and they need to be entertained; but above all, amid this ever more radically secularist culture, people are starving for the truth, and that is the most important thing the Festival of Creation would deliver: the truth that all the goodness and beauty of the cosmos is the handiwork of a great, wise, infinitely powerful and loving and awesome God, who created everything through his Son Jesus Christ and in the Holy Spirit, and who holds everything in existence, ceaselessly guarding and mysteriously guiding creation at every moment with His providential care.

Is anybody with me on this? What do you think? Please let me know by leaving your comments and suggestions below.

The Catholic Church and Space Exploration



Today we celebrate the 45th anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 lunar landing, when astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first-ever human persons to set foot on the moon. But did you know that three months after that great achievement, as part of their world tour, all three of the Apollo 11 astronauts got to meet the Pope? That's right: On October 16, 1969, Armstrong, Aldrin, and command module pilot Michael Collins and their wives had an audience with Pope Paul VI in the Vatican. In a brief address, Pope Paul lauded them for their courage in breaking a new barrier, and for the spirit of service to humanity and the spirit of peace in which they accomplished their scientific mission. He congratulated them on behalf of the whole Church and praised the "genius, dedication and perseverance" that went into "this magnificent undertaking." He also thanked the president and people of the United States for making possible this feat of exploration, "with typical generosity of spirit, for the good of man and the world." He prayed that such exploration of God's creation would enable us to more clearly see God's power, His infinity, and his perfection, and that this knowledge would draw humanity--His children--closer together "in fraternal love, in peace and in prayer." Finally, Pope Paul thanked God for the successful achievement of this space mission and for the astronauts' safe return to Earth, and invoked God's blessings on them and their families.

Some 45 years later, these noble words of Venerable (soon to be Blessed) Paul VI remind us of what the manned missions to the moon were really all about. God has put within man a natural desire to explore and learn about His creation. That's the whole point of science--it's a search for the truth about the natural world around us. The Catholic Church gave the world the principles on which true science rests, and it was a Catholic who invented the scientific method. Thus it should be no surprise that the Catholic Church is and always has been supportive of genuine scientific investigation, including space exploration, so long as it is conducted in the proper spirit and oriented to the true good of the human person and society.

Sadly, the generosity of spirit, nobility of purpose, and sound scientific principles that marked the Apollo lunar explorations are largely missing in the United States today, as our country continues to drift further away from God and thus from reality, as selfishness replaces a spirit of service, and as corruption and pseudo-scientific attitudes have diverted much of science and astronomy away from the search for truth and into the sustained defense of increasingly problematic--and often untestable and illogical--hypotheses that violate the laws of physics yet are widely accepted as scientific fact, such as the Big Bang, the Standard Model, constantly accelerating expansion of the cosmos, dark matter and dark energy, black holes, the "multiverse theory," and the random evolution of the universe and of life on earth over billions of years. Generally speaking, we've abandoned the scientific method and are living in a self-constructed house of mirrors. Given the abysmal state of so much of modern science, is it any wonder we haven't returned to the moon to build on the foundation courageously laid by the Apollo astronaut pioneers (and have no plans to do so anytime soon)?

As a nation, we're dropping the ball on scientific exploration here in the twenty-first century because 1) we no longer believe in God the Creator, 2) we see the universe He created as merely a random product of meaningless evolutionary forces, 3) we doubt that there is any such thing as objective and absolute truth except as determined by the individual person, and 4) we no longer care about the common good. America needs conversion! We need to be shaken out of this radically secularist mentality and get back to the basics about God and science. We need to recover the spirit of service to the common good and the genuinely scientific approach that made the Apollo missions such a remarkable success. May our recollection of those outstanding achivements and the sacrifices that went into them inspire us as Catholics and as American citizens to work together to support and undertake genuine scientific exploration in the footsteps of the Apollo astronauts for the glory of God and the good of the human family.

So Much for the "May Camelopardalids"...

...at least from my extremely limited perspective as a lone amateur astronomer who observed the night sky from about 8:45 PM to a little past 11 PM Friday evening from my home in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

Perusing my emails early Friday evening, I read an article from Astronomy magazine about a brand-new meteor shower predicted to occur that very night, so I jumped at the chance to witness it for myself. The new shower has been nicknamed the "May Camelopardalids" because the meteors would appear to radiate from a point in the northern sky in the large but faint constellation Camelopardalis the Giraffe (I can identify quite a number of the constellations, but haven't learned this one yet). The shower was caused by our planet Earth crossing through a stream of dust particles along the orbit of an obscure comet, 209P/LINEAR. The article predicted rates of anywhere between 100 and 400 meteors per hour in the early morning hours, which would have put it in a class by itself since the year's traditionally best meteor shower is the Geminids in December, which produce up to 120 meteors per hour under excellent conditions. So despite partly cloudy skies, I headed out to see if I could get at least a little slice of this spectacular show, keeping watch on the northern sky. However, I only saw two meteors radiate from the expected location, one at 10:18 PM EDT and the other at 10:23 PM.

Going to bed around midnight, I wondered what I would be missing in the early morning peak of the show. Apparently I didn't miss much, as other observers recorded just a handful of meteors early Saturday morning. See, for example, this image taken on the northern shore of Lake Erie from NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day website (note that the long bright streak across this image is not a meteor but the International Space Station passing through the field of view). So the expected show failed to materialize. But at least the astronomy professionals were correct that we would see a new shower, because we did. We mustn't be too hard on them for being so far off on the numbers, because even annually recurring meteor showers are notoriously fickle and hard to predict. They can be dazzling one year and boring the next, even if sky conditions are similar. More often, the opposite happens--an unusual outburst will occur entirely unpredicted, and only those who happened to be observing will see it. A good reason to observe on a regular basis, because you never know when you might be treated to something special.

So much for the "May Camelopardalids," at least for this year. Only time will tell whether this will develop into a major shower or sink into obscurity alongside the South Taurids and the Ursids. Despite the lackluster performance from this new meteor shower, however, I enjoyed looking at the stars and planets Friday evening. God's creation is magnificent and communicates to us His awesome power, glory, wisdom and intelligence, and above all His infinite love for us human beings, the masterpiece of His creative work, regardless of the occasion or time of year.

Snow in October? AGAIN?

Yep. Here we are--it's the end of October, and the snowflakes are blowing and falling as I write this. It's a strange phenomenon, but it's real. This is the second year in a row that we've had snow in late October. This is an unusual occurrence, even here in the mountains of western Virginia. Last year we had about half an inch of accumulation, enough to cover everything; this year we have just a trace of accumulation (so far--we might get more tonight, they say). We haven't even had our first hard frost yet. Must be global warming. (Just kidding.)

Seriously, I think this odd weather has something to do with Solar Cycle 24. If you're not familiar with this, Google it and read a little about it. The Sun has a complex 11-year sunspot cycle, and there is clear scientific evidence--enough to make a convincing theory--that this cycle somehow profoundly affects Earth's weather. Sunspots are magnetically charged regions of the sun's surface from which loops of plasma originate. They're cooler than the surrounding surface areas and have a brownish look to them. They always occur in pairs due to the laws of magnetic polarity, and they can be anywhere from one to three times the size of Earth. Scientific observations show that when there are fewer sunspots, Earth gets colder; when there are more, Earth gets warmer. Scientists don't understand the mechanism by which changes in magnetic solar activity produce climate changes on Earth, but there is clearly a link between the two. I intend to research this topic further and eventually present my findings in a research paper.

Anyway, the current sunspot cycle is rather atypical compared to previous cycles. If you look at a graph or diagram showing the sunspot cycles over the last 100 or so years, you'll notice that the cycles in the early and mid-twentieth century were pretty well defined, with the number of sunspots tending to rise and fall pretty evenly over the course of an 11-year cycle. However, in more recent cycles--those in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century--the sunspot patterns have been getting noticeably more irregular and chaotic. In the current cycle so far--the 24th since scientists have been keeping track--the number of sunspots looks more like a roller coaster than a smooth up-and-down curve. I think this has something to do with our irregular weather patterns and, more broadly, with climate change. I suspect that our weather is changing because the Sun is changing. It's not as stable and unchanging as we often perceive it. Some people may not like to hear this idea, but it may be true just the same. I'm not denying that human activity plays a role in climate change, but I'm convinced that that's only part of the story. The Sun is the primary engine that drives Earth's weather, and it is unquestionably the single most powerful influence on our weather and climate--overwhelmingly more powerful than any other influences.

So don't get worked up about climate change. It's basically a natural phenomenon triggered by solar change, with artificial CO2 emissions being only a minor contributing factor. And we shouldn't worry about the Sun changing either. God is in charge of the Sun and the Earth and everything in the universe. He created the universe and holds it in the palm of His hand. He loves us and we should trust in Him. And He wants us to continue exploring the amazing complexity and mystery of his awesome creation.

The peak of Solar Cycle 24 comes next year, so we can expect plenty more weird weather along with spectacular auroras, powerful solar flares and things like that. Hang on tight and enjoy the ride!

Quote of the Day

Catholics must not allow themselves to be intimidated into abandoning biblical chronology and accepting the speculations of modern astronomers concerning the age of the universe. The conclusion that the universe is ancient is not the scientific certainty that many of them assert it to be. They interpret data and construct models with the preconceived notion that the universe is ancient, but there is significant scientific evidence that it is not. The facts of modern astronomy do not make it a "necessity" to "depart from the literal and obvious sense" in the interpretation of Genesis' chronology. Rather the opposite is true. A correct interpretation of astronomical data agrees with the literal rendering of Genesis' chronology.

--Fr. Victor P. Warkulwiz, The Doctrines of Genesis 1-11: A Compendium and Defense of Traditional Catholic Theology on Origins (Caryville, TN: The John Paul II Institute of Christian Spirituality, 2009), p. 196.

Thought for the Day

The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.
--Psalm 19:2

Perseid Meteor Shower Was Awesome!

A couple weeks ago, I read in Astronomy magazine's e-newsletter that the Perseid meteor shower was going to peak on August 12. In all my previous attempts to observe meteor showers, I'd met with bad luck. However, I decided to go out and give the Perseids a try, since I had a mostly clear sky the evening of the predicted peak.

In one hour, I saw six meteors zip across the sky quick as a flash, all radiating from the direction of the constellation Perseus. Five of them left vapor trails in their wake that lingered for up to a second. Four of them were as bright or brighter than the planet Jupiter. In addition to these bright and fast meteors, I observed at least ten of the slower, dimmer kind track across the sky. It was like the sky was crawling with meteors. There were periods in which I couldn't go for more than a minute or two without seeing one. It was great fun!

Praise God for a thrilling celestial fireworks show.

News Flash: Quadruple Solar Flare!

On August 1, 2010, American astronomers observed the sun emit a series of four large coronal mass ejections. A coronal mass ejection, also known as a "solar flare," is a powerful eruption of electromagnetic energy from the surface of the sun into the outermost layer of the sun called the corona. It looks like a series of gigantic fountains of fire issuing from the entire surface of the sun. The largest coronal mass ejection may have a temperature of up to 4 million degrees Fahrenheit and extend more than one billion miles from the solar surface into space.

These eruptions are associated with sunspots, magnetically polarized regions of the sun's surface that are ironically cooler than the surrounding surface area, often having temperatures of only 10,000 degrees F. A coronal mass ejection sends a concentrated stream of electromagnetically charged particles into space that can travel for many millions of miles. When these particles collide with earth, they interact with the planet's magnetic field in the exosphere --the outermost layer of earth's atmosphere -- high above the north and south poles, generating beautiful displays of colored lights in the polar night skies known in the Northern Hemisphere as the aurora borealis, or northern lights. A large solar flare may even cause the northern lights to be seen at temperate mid-northern latitudes, although the display will be significantly dimmer and more subtle here.

Such bursts of solar energy are a regular feature of the sun, but every so often an unusually powerful burst will occur. NASA's Solar Dymanics Observatory, a spacecraft launched to study the sun, recorded four such bursts on August 1. These coronal mass ejections, traveling at speeds of over 1 million miles per hour, reached the earth three days later on the evening of August 4. The result was a spectacular aurora borealis display over earth's northern polar regions. The show extended as far south as the 45th parallel of latitude, and was seen by people in the northern United States.

Because coronal mass ejections occur at irregular intervals, astronomers cannot predict their occurrence. However, a large solar flare is an event typically observed by astronomers once
every one and a half years. Previous such events occurred in 2008, 2005 and 2003.

When you hear about a large solar flare in the news, check the night sky in the days following the event to see if you can see an auroral display. Be sure to observe from a location with a dark sky and an unobstructed northern horizon.

I myself have seen the aurora borealis on two separate occasions from my home in Ohio. The first was in October 2003, when I saw a green glow above the horizon and observed subtle red curtains of light waving high in the northern sky. My second sighting was of an even more subtle event in May 2005, when I merely noticed that the usual yellowish-white glow of distant city lights bore a greenish tinge. Although neither show was spectacular compared to the displays visible in polar regions, I was thrilled to be able to see them because of their rarity at midnorthern latitudes and because they were the first two times I ever witnessed the aurora borealis. I missed out on seeing the most recent extraordinary auroral event because I did not live far enough north to see it, but I will keep my eye open for future such events.

Copyright © 2010 by Justin Soutar. All rights reserved. This article may not be reproduced without the written permission of the author.